Schumer: Supercommittee deal unlikely

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart join Morning Joe to discuss why U.S. trade laws need to be revised and why the country's tax code has to focus on production as well as consumption.

By NBC's Frank Thorp

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) predicted that the supercommittee charged with reaching a deal on deficit reduction would not reach an agreement by its mid-November deadline.

Schumer, a top Senate Democrat, said Monday during an interview on MNSBC that he viewed a deal as unlikely, and he blamed Republicans for the current impasse.

"I don't think the gang of -- the supercommittee is going to succeed, because our Republican colleagues have said no net revenues," he told Joe and Mika on Morning Joe.

Republicans have pushed back against Schumer's claims, saying that the GOP has never said they want "no net revenues", but sticking by their mantra of calling for no tax hikes.

Supercommittee Co-Chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) reiterated that point to the Wall Street Journal in this morning's paper:

"Republicans want more revenues," he told the WSJ, "We want more revenues by growing the economy; we're not happy with revenues at 14% of GDP, but we don't want to do it by raising rates."

Boehner echoed this call on ABC's This Week, saying that reform of the tax code could raise revenues without raising rates. "We'd have a broader base on the tax rules," Boehner said on 'This Week', "And out of that, there would be real economic growth and more revenues for the federal government."

There is talk that reforming the tax code could be included in a deal by the supercommittee, if there actually is a deal. But the scope of that reform is still in question.

The tax code reform would likely not be done by the supercommittee itself, but probably as a mandate for future work by the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees to be completed by a deadline decided on by the supercommittee.